Consultative Service Partners

Bonnie Britton

Bonnie Britton, MSN, RN, ATAF, is recognized as a Telehealth pioneer and expert. She has dedicated the past 21 1/2 years of her career as a nurse, advancing the adoption and implementation of Remote Patient Monitoring both nationally and internationally. Bonnie was the 13th inductee into the American Telemedicine Association’s (ATA) College of Fellows in 2010. Bonnie is a previous ATA Board Member, chaired the ATA Home Telehealth SIG and the ATA Home Telehealth Clinical Guideline Development Committee, co-chaired the ATA Home Telehealth Satisfaction Item Bank, and participated as a member of the ATA Policy Committee, Awards Committee, and Nominating Committee. She currently serves as a Board Advisor and Consultant for the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center (MATRC). Bonnie has also successfully implemented CMS’s Chronic Care Management programs.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Business Models
  • Grant Writing
  • Program Evaluation
  • Program Operations
  • Reimbursement, Billing and/or Coding
  • Strategic Planning/Program Development
  • Technology

Telehealth Services

• • Chronic Disease Prevention and Management
  • Primary Care
  • Remote Patient Monitoring

Telehealth Settings

• • FQHCs
  • Home/Direct to Consumer
  • Hospitals/Health Systems
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas
  • SNFs

Just for Fun

• Favorite Sport and Sports Team? UNC Tar Heels Basketball
• What Is the Nerdiest Thing You Do In Your Spare Time? Sleep
• What is the Most Useless Talent That You Have? High pitch whistle
• At Which Store Would You Like to Max Out Your Credit Card? Lexus car dealership

Christian Milaster

Christian Milaster is passionate about enabling the delivery of extraordinary care. He relentlessly advocates for bringing satisfaction to the medical profession by applying systems thinking and implementing systems engineering solutions. Rooted in German engineering, Christian designs and implements pragmatic improvement and optimization solutions, drawing from a wide range of disciplines, including design thinking, agile, Lean, Baldrige, requirements engineering, servant project management, and others. Christian is the CEO of Ingenium Digital Health Advisors, a boutique advisory and consulting firm focused on leveraging Digital Health to enable the delivery of extraordinary care. Ingenium comprises a 6-person consulting team and a consortium of over a dozen expert advisors. Born, raised, and educated as an engineer in Germany, Christian started his career at IBM Global Services before joining the Mayo Clinic in 2000, where he worked for 12 years in various roles before launching Ingenium. He resides near Annapolis, Maryland with his wife and two pre-teenage daughters. “The problem in healthcare is not the lack of innovation. The problem is the lack of innovation adoption.”

Brian S. Gunnell

For the past 16 years, Brian Gunnell has served as the Senior Video-Conferencing Engineer for the University of Virginia Center for Telehealth. A Virginia Tech graduate, he brings extensive expertise in mobile and fixed endpoint VTC technology, communications, and telepresence infrastructure, as well as the clinical applications of mobile telehealth.

Brian has played a vital role in developing UVA’s emergency telemedicine capabilities, including tele-stroke, neonatal interventions, and special pathogen management. He has also led telemedicine initiatives in low-resource environments, including Guatemala, Tanzania, and Appalachian Southwestern Virginia. His work on mobile telestroke applications and telemedicine responses to Ebola and COVID-19 has been widely published.

Since 2020, Brian has helped develop the ISOCOM network at UVA, enabling virtual patient care in isolation spaces while reducing PPE usage. Focused on expanding access to care through simple technologies to help ensure access via direct to consumer video visits. His current research focuses on AI-driven diagnostics, predictive analytics, and automation to enhance telehealth accessibility and efficiency.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Program Operations
  • Strategic Planning/Program Development
  • Technology Assessment/Selection

Telehealth Services

• • Emergency Medicine (including Telestroke)

Telehealth Settings

• • Ambulance
  • Corrections
  • FQHCs
  • Home/Direct to Consumer
  • Hospitals/Health Systems
  • International/Global
  • Mobile Event Support
  • Occupational/Workplace
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas
  • School
  • SNFs/LTC

Just for Fun

• Favorite Sport and Sports Team? Virginia Tech football.  I love being outside firecooking while watching any game around my camp fire.
• What Is the Nerdiest Thing You Do In Your Spare Time? Read the manual to everything.
• At Which Store Would You Like to Max Out Your Credit Card? Lodge cast iron or a good outdoor store,

Chris Budig

Christopher Budig was the Telehealth Program Manager for operations and technical services at Tower Health System and is now an Independent Consultant.

Christopher Budig has been in the field of telehealth since 1994. He was the telemedicine coordinator at the University of Kansas (KU) during the inception of its program. He helped develop, test and implement the technology utilized at KU and worked with medical staff to evaluate the efficacy of telehealth equipment. In 1998, he became the Director of Mountaineer Doctor Television (MDTV) at West Virginia University. For eleven years he worked with rural communities to provide via telemedicine specialty care clinics to areas of the state that had not had access to such service without the need of long travel. Prior to his present position at Tower Health, Christopher served as the Executive Director of the West Virginia Telehealth Alliance (WVTA). His experience with the original Universal Services program via the FCC helped immensely with a Rural Healthcare Pilot Project (RHCPP) grant awarded to the WVTA to expand broadband in West Virginia. That program helped develop the now popular Health Care Connect Fund.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Program Operations
  • Telehealth Technology
  • USAC Rural Health Care Programs

Telehealth Services

• • Remote Patient Monitoring
  • Mental Health/Psychiatry
  • Emergency Medicine (including Telestroke)
  • Specialty Care: Dermatology, Neurology

Telehealth Settings

• • Academic Medical Center
  • Correctional
  • School
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas

David Cattell-Gordon

David Cattell-Gordon is the Planning, Design and Innovation Specialist for ThredEx.  After 30 years at the University of Virginia where I served as Director of Telehealth, Director of Rural Network Development as well as an Instructor in the School of Public Health Sciences and the School of Nursing, I formed a consultative partnership in 2019, Thread Ex LLC.

The mission of our organization is to help design and implement technological, clinical and educational innovations for vulnerable and isolated populations. This includes our expertise with the developmentally disabled, transgender/non-binary populations and individuals in congregate living environments including long term care and correctional facilities.

David was co-founder of the Healthy Appalachia Institute at UVA-Wise, a public health institute serving Virginia and Central Appalachia as well as co-founder of the Virginia Institute of Autism, an applied behavioral school, support program and research organization that has a focus on telehealth applications for people with developmental disabilities.

David was born and raised in the coalfields of Southeastern West Virginia, holds a degree in social psychology and advanced degrees in divinity and social work from Davidson College, Columbia University’s Union Theological Seminary and the City University of New York’s Hunter College. David also holds a certification in executive leadership from the Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Samuel Collins

Samuel Collins, DrPH, MSc is a research director within the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences. He leads the Project ECHO initiative at UVA, with a focus on provider and community education related to substance abuse, mental health, and other clinical topics. His work involves intervention and education design based on public health trends and clinical epidemiology. His time at UVA has included working with UVA Telehealth, Clinical Informatics, and the Department of Medicine. His areas of focus are inter-professional communications, asynchronous care delivery, and clinical workflow innovation through provider engagement and increasing access. Other areas of research interests include military medicine, emergency response and management, and culturally driven approaches to public health intervention

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Business Models
  • Grant Writing
  • Program Evaluation
  • Program Operations
  • Public Policy
  • Reimbursement, Billing and/or Coding
  • Strategic Planning/Program Development
  • Technology
  • USAC Rural Health Care Program

Telehealth Services

• • Chronic Disease Prevention and Management
  • Dermatology
  • e-Consults
  • Primary Care
  • Project ECHO
  • Remote Monitoring

Telehealth Settings

• • FQHCs
  • Home/Direct to Consumer
  • Hospitals/Health Systems
  • International/Global
  • Occupational/Workplace
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas

Just for Fun

• Favorite Sport and Sports Team:  Hibernian FC
• What Is the Nerdiest Thing You Do In Your Spare Time?  Latin
• What is the Most Useless Talent That You Have?  It wouldn’t be useless if it was a talent
• At Which Store Would You Like to Max Out Your Credit Card?  I wouldn’t do this

Steven Dean

Steven Dean, MS, is the Director of Telemedicine for the Inova Health System, a six hospital system in the Northern Virginia region. He has been involved in telehealth for over a decade serving in operational and administrative capacities. Steve is a past Chair of the mHealth Special Interest Group for the American Telemedicine Association, ATA, member of the Virginia Telehealth Network, and a current advisory board member and consultative partner of the Mid Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center. He is a recognized speaker in virtual health, created a pre-conference curriculum for mobile health, and co-authored the teleICU guidelines for ATA. His expertise is technical administration of telemedicine and mobile services.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Business Models
  • Program Evaluation
  • Program Operations
  • Strategic Planning/Program Development
  • Technology

Telehealth Services

• • Emergency Medicine including Telestroke
  • Genetics
  • Tele-ICU
  • Mental Health/Psychiatry
  • Primary Care

Telehealth Settings

• • Home/Direct to Consumer
  • Hospitals/Health Systems

Just for Fun

• Favorite Sport and Sports Team? Football, Miami Dolphins
• What Is the Nerdiest Thing You Do In Your Spare Time? What spare time?
• What is the Most Useless Talent That You Have? Talking like a duck
• At Which Store Would You Like to Max Out Your Credit Card? Lexus car dealership

Amanda Martin North

Amanda Martin North is the Executive Director of the Center for Rural Health Innovation (CRHI) located in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. As  Executive Director, she covers a wide range of duties: from day to day operations to program design and implementation, but she is happiest when she can make spreadsheets and budgets work to improve access to healthcare.

Too squeamish to be a medical provider, but wanting to work in the healthcare field, Amanda studied at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where she completed the Executive Masters in Healthcare Administration in 2016. She has extensive experience in the healthcare industry; working in the medical device field with ETHICON, a Johnson & Johnson Company, as well as managing a rural private practice in western North Carolina. Amanda first served CRHI as a founding board member in 2010 before becoming the Executive Director.

Amanda’s talents lie in the leadership and finance area of rural healthcare. Under Amanda’s leadership, CRHI has established and grown a school-based telemedicine program (Health-e-Schools) from three pilot sites to a 100+ site program in eleven school districts, which she now supervises. She manages a growing and evolving team of clinical and operations professionals who deliver healthcare and care coordination to thousands of rural North Carolinians every year.

Amanda has served on the Advisory Board of the Mid Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center (MATRC) since 2011. She is the Vice President of the NC School-Based Health Alliance and on the Executive Board for PATH, a non-profit organization that identifies opportunities to improve the health of children and families in Mitchell and Yancey counties. She is active in her church, keeps a big garden and loves to cook. She lives in the small mountain town of Spruce Pine, NC with her husband, four children, and three dogs.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Business Models
  • Program Operations
  • Reimbursement, Billing and/or Coding
  • Strategic Planning/Program Development

Telehealth Services

• • Chronic Disease Prevention and Management
  • Primary Care
  • Pediatrics

Telehealth Settings

• • School
  • Hospitals/Health Systems
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas

Just for Fun

• Favorite Sport and Sports Team? I always pull for Georgia Tech and whoever is playing against University of Georgia. I’m a second-generation Yellow Jacket – it’s what I do.
• What Is the Nerdiest Thing You Do In Your Spare Time? I like to read cookbooks. All the stuff in between the actual recipes, in addition to the recipes themselves.
• What is the Most Useless Talent That You Have? Since I have played in the handbell choir at my church for a dozen years, I can read music, but only two notes at a time: whichever bells I happen to be playing.
• At Which Store Would You Like to Max Out Your Credit Card? I love IKEA. Always have.
  

Steve North

Dr. Steve North, MD, MPH, is a practicing Family Physician and Adolescent Medicine specialist at a rural health center in Mitchell County, NC. In 2011, he founded the Health-e-Schools school-based telemedicine program that currently provides access to acute care, primary care, adolescent medicine, and comprehensive asthma services to over 35,000 students at 80 schools in six school districts across North Carolina. In 2014 the Health-e-Schools program was awarded the American Telemedicine Association’s President’s Award for Health, Quality and Innovation.

Additionally, he serves as the Medical Director for Mission Virtual Care working with a team to integrate inpatient, outpatient, virtual visits, and remote home monitoring into Mission Health, North Carolina’s sixth largest health system that serves the state’s 18 western most counties. Dr. North is the Rural Telehealth Research Fellow at the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Center for Health Services Research, a member of the HRSA Rural Telehealth Research Center, leads the SPROUT school-based research interest group, and was a member of the National Quality Forum’s Telehealth Committee. He currently serves on the boards of the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center and the Foundation for Health Leadership and Innovation and, is a co-author of the American Telemedicine Association’s Operating Procedures for Pediatric Telehealth and the Practice Guidelines for Telemental Health with Children and Adolescents.

Dr. North received his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his medical doctorate from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He completed his Family Medicine Residency, Adolescent Medicine Fellowship, and Master’s in Public Health at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He lives in Spruce Pine, NC with his sons Eli and Oscar where they spend their free time building Legos, hiking in National Parks, and reading.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Business Models
  • Program Operations
  • Reimbursement, Billing and/or Coding
  • Strategic Planning/Program Development

Telehealth Services

• • Chronic Disease Prevention and Management
  • Primary Care
  • Pediatrics

Telehealth Settings

• • School
  • Hospitals/Health Systems
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas

Jay Ostrowski

Jay Ostrowski, MA, LPCS, NCC, ACS, BC-TMH (Founder) helps mental health programs of all sizes develop regional and national online telemental health services, create online therapy clinical workflows, create award-winning niche applications, and train clinicians in the safe and legal use of technology for online therapy. He’s a Licensed Professional Counselor. As a clinician, he specialization in telebehavioral and telemental health. He is the CEO of Behavioral Health Innovation and Adaptive Telehealth, and founded and directs the Telebehavioral Health Center of Excellence where he tracks industry trends. Thus far Jay has led the development of 12 HIPAA-secure telemedicine software platforms, created 9 peer-reviewed telemental health training courses for national certification and created many innovative niche treatment programs.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Business Models
  • Program Evaluation
  • Program Operations
  • Strategic Planning/Program Development
  • Telehealth Technology

Telehealth Services

• • Cronic Care Management
  • HIPAA Compliance
  • Remote patient Monitoring
  • Technology Selection
  • Telebehavioral Health
  • Telemental Health

Telehealth Settings

• • Primary care-mental health integration
  • In-home services
  • Correctional
  • School
  • Occupational/Workplace
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas

Mike Patterson

Mike has over 30 years with healthcare technology. His background started with engineering and radiology systems. He worked as an x-ray field engineer inhouse , on the corporate side and has served in supervisory and management roles. For the last 20 years he’s focused on telehealth technology starting with the UVA Karen S. Rheuban Center for Telehealth and presently as the founder and technical analyst for Totier Technologies LLC.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Telehealth Technology
  • Program Operations

Telehealth Services

• • Chronic Disease Prevention and Management
  • Dermatology
  • Dialysis
  • Emergency Medicine including Telestroke
  • Genetics
  • Geriatrics
  • ICU
  • Maternal/Fetal Medicine
  • Mental Health/Psychiatry
  • Oral/Dental
  • Primary Care
  • Project ECHO
  • Remote Monitoring
  • Wound Care

Telehealth Settings

• • Corrections
  • FQHCs
  • Home/Direct to Consumer
  • Hospitals/Health Systems
  • International/Global
  • Occupational/Workplace
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas
  • Schools
  • SNFs

Just for Fun

• Favorite Sport and Sports Team? No one favorite sport. It’s seasonal football, basketball, baseball. Prefer college sports. Favorite team is UVA
• What Is the Nerdiest Thing You Do In Your Spare Time? Looking for amazing songs from new and obscure performers
• What is the Most Useless Talent That You Have? Telling dad jokes
• At Which Store Would You Like to Max Out Your Credit Card? Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center

Mara Servaites

Mara Servaites, MSW, PCMH, CCE, serves as the contract Executive Director for Virginia Telehealth Network (VTN). She is an independent consultant for health and human resource organizations across the country, specifically focusing on safety net providers and rural health organizations. Before entering the consulting field, Mara served in senior positions with national organizations serving the safety net, including TAP-IN and ECHO. Previously she led the Virginia Association of Free Clinics, the oldest Free Clinic association in the US, and served as Program Director at the Mental Health Association of the New River Valley, where she helped to develop the first free mental health clinic in Virginia and a court-approved educational seminar that served as a state model. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Family and Child Development from Virginia Tech and her Master of Social Work degree and Leadership Certificate in Nonprofit Management from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Grant Writing
  • Program Operations
  • Strategic Planning/Program Development
  • Reimbursement, Billing and/or Coding

Telehealth Settings

• • FQHCs
  • Free or Charitable Clinics
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas

Just for Fun

• Favorite Sport and Sports Team? Virginia Tech Hokies or my son’s swim team
• What Is the Nerdiest Thing You Do In Your Spare Time? Kombucha making
• What is the Most Useless Talent That You Have? Participating in conference calls while pushing kids on a swing
• At Which Store Would You Like to Max Out Your Credit Card? Any locally owned art or furniture store

Rob Sprang

Rob Sprang, MBA has led the UK Telehealth initiative at the University of Kentucky since 1996 and has been involved with improving the legal and regulatory environment at both the state and federal level. It has been encouraging to see the broad adoption of telehealth. Unfortunately, it took a public health crisis to help the world recognize what we have believed for over 25 years.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Business Models
  • Grant Writing
  • Program Operations (internal policies, processes, staffing, workflows)
  • Strategic Planning/Program Development
  • Technology Assessment/Selection

Telehealth Services

• • Cancer
  • Emergency Medicine including Telestroke
  • Genetics
  • Geriatrics
  • Maternal/Fetal Medicine
  • Mental Health/Psychiatry
  • Primary Care
  • Remote Monitoring

Telehealth Settings

• • Corrections
  • FQHCs
  • Home/Direct to Consumer
  • Hospitals/Health Systems
  • Occupational/Workplace
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas
  • SNFs/LTCs
  • Expanding Telehealth Thru Community Access Points (outside of healthcare facilities)

Just for Fun

• Favorite Sport and Sports Team?  As I get older, golf seems to be most practical. Dallas Cowboys and Texas Longhorns, but they don’t always make it easy.
• What Is the Nerdiest Thing You Do In Your Spare Time? Oh, so many to choose from!
• What is the Most Useless Talent That You Have? Handmade hiking sticks
• At Which Store Would You Like to Max Out Your Credit Card? Lowes

Cheryl D Sullivan

Cheryl served for over 15 years in corporate real estate. This involved responsibility for over 400 facilities and an operating budget of $57M. I was responsible for strategic planning to meet client space needs while achieving corporate goals. In 2003 I formed South River Consultants, LLC to provide advice and assistance to clients wishing to participate in the Universal Service Administrative Company’s Rural Health Care program. During this time we have been successful in obtaining the maximum support for our numerous clients.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Program Evaluation
  • USAC Rural Health Care Program

Telehealth Settings

• • Hospitals/Health Systems
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas

Just for Fun

• Favorite Sport and Sports Team? NASCAR Jimmie Johnson
• What Is the Nerdiest Thing You Do In Your Spare Time? Reading crochet patterns and following intricate directions
• What is the Most Useless Talent That You Have? Cleaning house
• At Which Store Would You Like to Max Out Your Credit Card? Tiffany’s

Eugene Sullivan

After graduating from college Eugene served over 22 years in the United States Army. I have been stationed in Viet Nam, Korea, Germany, Central America and the Persian Gulf. While in the Army I completed flight school and earned my aviator wings. I am rated in both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft and hold a Commercial Pilots license. After retiring from the Army I was invited to join the faculty at the University of Virginia Health System. Along with my co-founder Doctor Karen Rheuban we created the Office of Telemedicine. The UVA Telemedicine network now connects over 160 sites across the state and numerous international connections. In August 2018 I retired from the University. I now work as a consultant.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Program Evaluation
  • USAC Rural Health Care Program

Telehealth Settings

• • Hospitals/Health Systems
  • Rural/Underserved Populations or Areas

Just for Fun

• Favorite Sport and Sports Team? James Madison University Football
• What Is the Nerdiest Thing You Do In Your Spare Time? Try and play golf
• What is the Most Useless Talent That You Have? Remembering songs from the 60’s
• At Which Store Would You Like to Max Out Your Credit Card? Mercedes Benz

Joe Tracy

Mr. Tracy has been working in connected care and innovation since 1993 and is currently consulting with select organizations. In previous roles with the University of Missouri and the Lehigh Valley Health Network he built a portfolio of telehealth programs providing services to patients of all ages, in settings ranging from emergency/critical care to primary care. Over time, these programs provided 1,000,000+ virtual encounters.

Joe currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center (MATRC). His is also the past Co-Chair of the Pennsylvania Telehealth Advisory Committee; a past President of the Robert J. Waters Center for Telehealth and e-Health Law; and a past Chair of the American Telemedicine Association’s (ATA) Institutional Council.

In 2013, Joe was one of three members of the Lehigh Valley Health Network to accept the American Nursing Credentialing Center’s Magnet Prize for “Telehealth Services.” In 2003, he accepted the ATA President’s Award on behalf of the Missouri Telehealth Network and in 2006 he accepted ATA’s Leadership Award for his individual contributions to the field of telehealth.

Mr. Tracy drafted the telehealth Medicare reimbursement language for the Southern Governors Association in 1999 and for U.S. Senate Bill 2505, which significantly improved Medicare reimbursement for telehealth in October 2001. Joe has also testified before Congress and the Federal Communications Commission on issues related to telehealth.

Joe is also the Editor of A Guide to Getting Started in Telemedicine, published by the federal Office for the Advancement of Telehealth.

Areas of Expertise

Administration

• • Business Models
  • Public Policy
  • Program Operations
  • Reimbursement, Billing and/or Coding
  • Strategic Planning/Program Development

Telehealth Services

• • Emergency Medicine
  • Mental Health
  • Pediatrics
  • Remote Patient Monitoring
  • Specialty Care: Burn, Infectious Disease, Trauma, Wound Care, Radiology, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Neurology
  • TeleICU

Telehealth Settings

• • Hospitals/Health Systems
  • SNFs
  • Schools
  • Home/Direct to Consumer